China calls for a negotiated end to world’s US-led wars, genocide (UPDATED)

Muhammad Amin
A negotiated peace deal is the only way to end the Gaza genocide and the Ukraine war, China has announced in a direct challenge to US “global leadership” that has resolutely worsened the two conflicts over the last two miserable years.
Although he didn’t mention it, Sudan’s sprawling civil war also falls under the ambit of Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun’s observation. He Friday called for talks to end the conflicts that are continuing only on the back of Western diplomatic insistence and generous military assistance.
The Ukraine war was on the verge of ending in a peace deal during the Istanbul negotiations in the Spring of 2022 when Russia and Ukraine had already started signing off pages. But then Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, flew in to bend Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s ear and to successfully scupper the deal.
And, in the Gaza talks, a June 2 peace deal proposed by Israel was accepted by Hamas, but then went nowhere when the US allowed Israel to walk away from its own creation, ensuring the genocide has slouched on for another 14 deadly weeks.
Genocide style
Sudan also featured “Gaza-style” peace talks in August that the Sudanese government walked away from when it became clear the Rapid Support Forces and the western “mediators” were on the same side. That conflict – like the Libyan civil war – also continues only with the financial and military support of the UAE, a key Western ally in Arabia.
Dong was addressing China’s top security gathering, known as Xiangshan Forum, in Beijing that was attended by participants from over 100 nations.
He said weaker countries must be allowed to put their destiny “in their own hands” instead of them dictated to by stronger others.
“To resolve hotspot issues such as the crisis in Ukraine and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, promoting peace and negotiation is the only way out,” he said.
The Gaza Holocaust has killed over 41,000 Palestinians in 11 months, while more than 11,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine in 31 months.
“There is no winner in war and conflict, and confrontation leads nowhere. The more acute the conflict, the more we cannot give up dialogue and consultation. The end of any conflict is reconciliation,” said Dong.
China-bashing, Gaza blind
China’s message wouldn’t have made much of an impression among America’s political elite, but the closer the cabal huddles together behind its own systemic prejudices, the harder it is to keep outsiders in the loop. Inevitably, the ties binding America’s allies behind a shared global hegemonic order appear to be unravelling.
China-bashing shares with Gaza genocide denialism a spot on the isolated podium of consensus in America’s highly polarized political system. It’s a consensus of insincere, depersonalised convenience that existed before the election cycle began and will probably continue whoever wins the White House in November.
Some US allies, Bloomberg notes Friday, are growing less inclined to follow that path.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez signalled a clear shift Thursday when he called on the European Union to drop additional tariffs currently in the pipeline for Chinese electric vehicles. Spain has also been a vocal critic of Israel’s Gaza Holocaust.
Unravelling prejudice
Germany has steadfastly supported Israel, determined to be on the wrong side of a Holocaust twice in a row, but it knows which side of the bread its butter’s to be found. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government also reiterated its opposition to the EU move. China is disputing the bloc’s decision, made on grounds of unfair state subsidies, at the World Trade Organization.
Bloomberg says Germany and Spain are Europe’s two largest car producers, with Germany dependent on the Chinese market for sales and Spain jockeying for Chinese investments to develop its own EV industry.
The calls surely won’t go unnoticed in Washington that has been working hard to blockade at all levels China’s unstoppable rise to dominance in trade and technology.
Under the banner of “Bidenomics”, the US has continued the hostility started under Donald Trump’s presidency. That contrasts with the mock-shock criticisms of racism Biden fired against his adversary when Trump first waded in on Beijing, and underlines the reality that the US is a one-party state divided between two colluding parties that only bicker over irrelevant, fringe issues like gender.
Allies pay the cost
The US has imposed tariffs on Chinese EVs, and is working feverishly to curtail Beijing’s access to advanced technologies by twisting the arms of allies, notably high-tech producers in Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands, to fall into line.
Bloomberg asks: “Japan’s reward? Biden opposes Nippon Steel’s planned $14 billion takeover of US Steel on what appear purely political grounds — US Steel is based in Pennsylvania, a swing state, and the United Steelworkers union rejects the deal. Both Harris and Trump are also opposed.
“That’s a reality that won’t go unnoticed in Europe, either.”